Tarnished Silver Lining
by jaded river hussie
Summary: With Josh in a coma, Drake and Mindy find that they have little choice but to lean on each other. AU
1. Tarnished Silver Lining

**Title: **Tarnished Silver Lining

**Pairings: **Josh/Mindy, Drake/Mindy

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters; just playing in the sandbox.

**Notes: **for hc_bingo prompt: unconsciousness; _reviews are love! _:-)

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><p>There's an accident and Mindy blames Drake because he was driving and because he walked away with a few scrapes and bruises, and a concussion; it doesn't matter that the other driver was at fault, that he flew through the red light and slammed into the passenger side of Drake's car. She blames Drake for Josh's body being so broken that he's being kept in a medically induced coma. She blames Drake because he kept Josh out late with the intent of making him late for his date with her. If Drake wasn't selfish and immature and hateful, Josh would be awake and healthy and whole.<p>

Mindy visits Josh in the hospital every day; Drake's normally there when she arrives. His guilt is written all over his face and sometimes she almost feels bad for him. Drake misses Josh more than she does.

She holds Josh's hand, always still but warm in hers. It pains her to admit it and she says it so quietly that she's not sure that he hears her at first. "It wasn't your fault."

"You don't believe that."

Her smile is sad and bitter. "No, I don't but it's the truth. The accident _wasn't_ your fault. The circumstances—" she pauses, swallows, squeezes Josh's hand. "Wrong place, wrong time."

Drake walks over to the window. "I don't want him to blame me when he wakes up."

"He won't. Josh will understand and there will be no reason for him not to forgive you."

He looks at her out of the corner of his eyes. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you going to forgive me?"

She shakes her head. After all this time _now_ he takes her, her feelings and her thoughts, into consideration; if only he'd done so the night of the accident. "You don't need my forgiveness, Drake. This isn't about me."

"It kinda is. It's been days, Mindy. We just sit here, not talking to each other or Josh until I leave. We can't avoid each other."

"We're talking now, so, I'd say that's a start; wouldn't you?" She can avoid saying that she'll forgive him; it's enough to her that she's admitted that it's not his fault. That doesn't mean she'll stop blaming Drake. Luckily, for him, she is multi-talented and skilled at multi-tasking; she can hate him and converse with him at the same time.

He shrugs. "I guess."

The days turn into weeks that turn into months as Josh's body continues to heal and Mindy is surprised to realize that she blames and hates Drake less and less. When school starts back up, they leave together and go straight to the hospital. Mindy reads her class notes aloud to Josh so that he doesn't miss anything; Drake finds himself actually _learning_ as he listens to her talking to Josh and much to everyone's shock, he starts bringing home B's and C's.

Drake stops dating as frequently as he used to since most of his time not spent at home or school is divided between the hospital, band practice, and doing homework.

It's hard for Mindy to not feel proud when Drake's grades rise because clearly it has been due to her influence. She's genuinely happy for him when he pulls his average up from a D+ to a C-.

She never thought she'd enjoy spending time with Drake and she feels pangs of guilt because she still misses Josh and she wonders how quickly things will return to normal when he wakes up and after he's released. It's not a pleasant feeling knowing that she's going to miss spending time with Drake in a few weeks when the doctors plan to wean Josh from of his coma.

Everything changes on a Tuesday afternoon. After the final bell, Mindy's at her locker packing up her book bag and Drake shows up, smiling and breathless, holding up a test he'd taken the week before. There's a bright red A- circled in the upper right hand corner. All he says is, "Dude, can you believe it?"

"Honestly? No," she says, half-serious but there is still humor in her tone and her eyes and she feels a weird sense of accomplishment as she bounces on her toes and gives him a congratulatory hug. It takes her a second to realize why it feels so odd because they're not really friends and they don't intentionally engage in physical contact with one another, as a matter of fact, they avoid it.

She's standing flat on the ground as the hug is ending and it should be over except out of nowhere Drake's kissing her and she's kissing him back, sliding her arms back around his neck. She knows that she should end the kiss because her boyfriend is lying in a hospital bed and she should not be making out with _anyone_, least of all his brother. But she misses Josh and she misses kissing and cuddling and feeling wanted and it's not so wrong when her tongue darts into Drake's mouth, is it? And they've been spending so much time together, yes, this kiss is completely justifiable.

She feels like the kiss could last forever or at least until they need to come up for air. It doesn't and it can't because the noisy hallway quiets, voices hush, footsteps die down and lockers stop slamming. She knows without opening her eyes that they're being watching, that everyone will know by the end of homeroom tomorrow, and that if they're lucky, a teacher isn't about to catch them and give them detention.

Mindy holds her head high, pretending that they haven't done anything wrong, that she has nothing to be ashamed of, as she and Drake make the unbearably long trek past their classmates to his car.

While stopped at a red light, Drake asks, "Do you think Josh'll understand?"

She snorts. "I don't even understand; do you?"

"No."

"Well, there's your answer," she says tersely. It's always so easy to blame Drake.

He's defensive. "It didn't mean anything; I just wanted to thank you."

"Maybe next time you could try to be a little more articulate, more verbal." She pauses. "You're welcome."

"So what does this mean?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Mindy looks at Drake, his eyes are focused on the road. "Do you even like me?"

He gives her a half shrug. "Maybe. Do you like me?"

"I don't know. I like Josh." She stares at the window and sighs. "It's complicated. Maybe we should stop spending so much time together until Josh wakes up."

"Okay."

Two weeks later, the last dosages of the drugs keeping Josh in his coma have been administered and they wait. The doctors say that it could be a few days or a couple weeks. They keep waiting. And waiting until the doctors conclude that Josh has slipped into a coma, possibly from the accident but there's a chance that the medications caused it; there's no way of knowing when, or if, he'll ever wake up.

Drake and Mindy start spending their hours together at the hospital again, hoping and waiting, hidden feelings blooming. One evening when he drives her home, she leans over and kisses him. As much as she cares for Josh, she can't keep her life on hold; they're teenagers, they were dating, not about to get married. Drake's logic that she can't very well date Josh if he's not conscious nor can she break up with him, so it's not really cheating makes perfect sense to her because she wants it to. And it's not like they don't tell Josh, they just don't know if he hears them.

Nearly a year after the accident, the day that Josh finally awakens is the same day that Mindy wakes in Drake's bed for the first time.


	2. Fool's Gold

**Notes: **So, I really had planned for this to be a completed one-shot. Take 2.

_R__eviews = love (and sometimes love makes you do crazy and/or stupid things like continuing fics you hadn't intended to)! _:-)

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><p>The months continue to pass, the seasons change, autumn, winter, spring and then summer once again and Josh remains in a coma. Drake and Mindy continue to visit him daily, leaving their relationship outside of the hospital room. In there, at Josh's bedside, it's almost like she reverts to being Josh's girlfriend for the half hour or however long they stay.<p>

Just as they never make their visits with Josh about their relationship, they try to not make their relationship about Josh. In the almost five months that they've been dating, Drake and Mindy have never once discussed what to tell Josh when he wakes up. It's not that either of them has given up hope, the possibility is just no longer at the very forefront of their minds. It's hard to hope that his condition will miraculously improve when everyday it stays the same.

So, they don't talk about Josh when they're together. Mindy hassles Drake about applying to colleges, at least community college since his transcripts are awful. She launches into lengthy speeches about schools with excellent music programs and he listens to appease her even though he has no intention of filling out a single application; he's just happy that it looks like he's actually going to graduate next year.

One night they're hanging out in Drake's room—Drake _and Josh's_ room, because coma or no coma, it is still Josh's room—and they're fooling around and before they know it they're missing pieces of clothing and she's murmuring "Please don't stop" and he doesn't. Afterwards, he whispers a request for her to stay and she does. When she first begins to wake up the following morning, it takes Mindy a few moments to realize where she is.

Drake starts shifting behind her and rolls onto his back, yawning.

Mindy turns onto her side to face him, keeping the sheet tucked around her, looking much more bashful than she had the night before. "Morning."

He opens his eyes, blinking several times before smiling at her. "Hey."

"Do you think your parents noticed that I never left last night?"

"They've never noticed much of anything, so I doubt it." He rolls back onto his side. "Guess it's a good thing that your paren—"

Walter's voice yelling Drake's name carries down the hall and his footsteps are growing louder and closer to the room rapidly. There's panicking as Drake hops out of the bed, scrambling to pull on his boxers as Mindy hides under the covers and Walter throws the door open. Walter is breathing hard, his face shining brightly with cheer that Drake hasn't seen since before the accident. He knows before his stepfather says the words: Josh is awake.

Mindy can hear Walter panting, the excitement coursing through his veins as he tells Drake that the hospital just called and told him that Josh woke up a few hours ago; that they've been running tests to make sure that he's okay and so far, so good. He should be able to have visitors soon; they need to get ready and go.

Drake follows Walter to the door, pushing it closed behind him. He thinks better and locks it as well. "Mindy?"

She sits up, rigid. "He's awake."

"Yeah. I—do you need me to take you home?"

She shakes her head; she doesn't know how to feel. "You should go with your family to the hospital. I'll be by later."

He shuffles; he seems unsure of what to do. He bounds forward, over to his lofted bed, and climbs the bottom two rungs of the ladder to give her a goodbye kiss. Mindy feels the slightest inclination to pull him back onto the bed but Josh is awake and Drake needs to get ready and go. She needs to go.

Mindy doesn't have to bother sneaking out of the room and down the stairs because the rest of the Parker-Nichols clan doesn't seem to notice her in their rush to get to the hospital.

She shows up outside of Josh's hospital room a couple hours later. She can hear the happy voices and laughter occasionally through the door. She doesn't feel comfortable knocking and interrupting so she waits for almost twenty minutes before she sends Drake a text letting him know that she's there.

He steps into the hallway less than a minute later. "He's asked about you."

"And?" He doesn't answer her. "Drake?"

"Mom and Walter don't want us to tell him right away."

She frowns a little, thinking it over. "That's reasonable; he just woke up and found out that he's missed almost a year of his life. It's probably best not to overwhelm him."

He looks surprised. "You're okay with waiting?"

"It'll be just a few days, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm okay with that."

He starts to lean in to kiss her but he stops; she knows why, she feels it too. It's too awkward with Josh awake and on the other side of the wall. Drake takes her hand in his, his grip tightening on hers as he pushes the door to Josh's hospital room open. They cross the threshold and he lets her hand fall from his.

Josh sits up a little straighter and his smile grows a little bigger. "Mindy." His voice is hoarse from not being used and from the dryness of his throat and vocal cords.

She gives him a smile and feels like she could burst into tears at any second. "Hey you."

Oh God, she has spent so long missing him and now he's back and for a split second she hopes that everything can go back to the way it was before the accident, but only for a split second.

Audrey ushers the rest of the family out, to give Josh and Mindy a little time alone.

"Miss me?"

"Of course I did, Josh," she says, taking a few steps closer to his bed. It's been so long since she had a chance to look at his eyes that she'd forgotten how blue they were. He reaches for her hand and it takes her a few seconds to realize that he's waiting for her to place her hand in his; she does because as far as he knows, she's still his girlfriend. He laces his fingers through hers.

It's not the same; part of her wishes that it were but it just doesn't feel the same. At the same time, she's so relieved that it doesn't feel the same because it means that Josh being awake shouldn't change things between her and Drake—not much anyway.

Suddenly, she's not okay with waiting days to tell Josh that she and Drake are together. The longer they wait, the harder Josh is going to take it because he's gazing at her and talking to her like she's exactly the same girl he was dating a year ago and she's not, she's changed. He thinks that she's been waiting for him and she hasn't. She's not his and last night she slept with his brother and as much as she's missed Josh, as much as she used to adore him, she would rather be holding Drake's hand right now. She just….

She hates doing it but she's growing uncomfortable and she makes up an excuse to leave, promising to return tomorrow and stay longer.

Despite that fact that Mindy's become a fixture at the Parker-Nichols house over the last few months, more so than before the accident, both Walter and Audrey look a little surprised to see her poised to knock on the front door when they're heading back out to the hospital that night.

Drake's laying down on the couch in his room, tossing a stress ball into the air when Mindy knocks on the door frame. He sits up quickly, looking a little shocked to see her as well. "I didn't think you were coming over."

"Why not?" She closes the door behind her.

"Josh is awake," he says with a shrug, as if that should explain everything.

She cocks her head to the side, eyes narrowed. "I'm not with you just because I couldn't be with Josh, Drake, and I'm highly offended that you think that."

"I don't think that. Well, maybe a little. I mean, c'mon, Mindy, who are we kidding? That's the only reason we got together in the first place."

She's stunned. Is he really saying these things to her? "Be that as it may, Drake, it is certainly not why I've stayed with you. And it is not why—last night—" she takes a deep breath. "Are you trying to break up with me?"

"No."

"Then _what_ is your problem?" she asks, perching on the armchair.

He swings his legs over the side of the couch, his head down, letting his hair fall so that she can't see his eyes. "I saw the way you looked at Josh."

"I was overcome with emotions at the fact that my _ex-_boyfriend had just woken up from a year long coma. I know you're a little emotionally stunted at times, Drake, but you can't have expected me to not _feel_ anything at all. I like you but that doesn't mean that I everything that I felt for Josh just ceased to exist when you and I started dating."

He lifts his head and looks at her. "Do you want to get back together with him?"

Mindy rolls her eyes, irritated that he doubts her and he doubts himself, and walks over to the couch; she sits next to him. "I know you are not that dense, Drake; _no, I do not_ want to get back together with Josh. I also do not want to pretend that I'm still his girlfriend because it's lying to him and it's almost like I'm cheating on you and I'm not okay with doing either of those things. You're not my replacement boyfriend and I'm not your replacement best friend, I am your girlfriend."

She's being as blunt as she can be and she knows that he's listening but he's not hearing her or he doesn't quite believe that she's choosing to stay with him over Josh just because of one look that lasted for all of ten seconds.

"I'd say, 'can we not talk about Josh right now' but I guess to talk about us we have to talk about him." She doesn't want them to fight; she'd come over, so optimistic about their foreseeable future together. She thought that he'd be happy to hear that she was over Josh. Now Mindy just wants them to talk about _anything_ else other than Josh, to do something else.

Maybe it's the best way to convince Drake that she's not going to have a change of mind or change of heart and break-up with him, not to get back with Josh anyhow; to prove that the night before wasn't a mistake, that she doesn't regret it, that even with Josh being awake, she'll do it all over again. Drake maneuvers on top of her easily, presses against her, and she reminds him that it's just the two of them, that she wants _him_.

She loves him.


End file.
